The present invention relates generally to checkout or point-of-sale (POS) stations, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for checking out non-barcoded items at a self-checkout station or an assisted checkout station.
In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has been focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required for a cashier or checkout clerk to handle and/or process the goods to be purchased by a customer. To this end, there have been a number of improvements to speed-up the checkout procedure through an assisted checkout station. In addition, a number of self-checkout station concepts have been developed which substantially eliminate the need for a checkout clerk.
One improvement which has had a large impact on reducing the amount of time required to process items through an assisted checkout station or a self-checkout station is the use of optical scanning equipment such as scanners or bar code readers. Unfortunately, there are a fair number of items available in a grocery store that do not have a bar code such as a universal product code (UPC) associated therewith. Generally, those items not having a bar code associated therewith, are items whose price is based upon a weight of the item. Examples of such items include bulk foods, store prepared foods and produce such as fruits and vegetables which are typically sold based on a weight of the item(s) to be purchased. The trend in the supermarket industry has been to determine the weight of an un-scannable item at a checkout station during the checkout process by using a weight scale (typically associated with a slot scanner device). What is meant herein by the use of the term "un-scannable" item is an item whose price is determined based upon the weight of the item.
In order to "key-in" or otherwise process an un-scannable item, a checkout clerk (in an assisted checkout station) or a customer (in a self-checkout station) must place the un-scannable item on the weight scale and then perform a checkout procedure for the un-scannable item which may involve of one or more keystroke operations. In particular, an initial keystroke may be required in order to cause the weight of the un-scannable item resting on the weight scale to be determined. One or more additional keystrokes may then be required to identify the un-scannable item resting on the weight scale by entering or otherwise selecting a product look-up (PLU) code via a data input device associated with the checkout station.
Once the item has been weighed and properly identified, a processing unit associated the checkout station determines a price for the item based in part on the weight of the item. In particular, the weight of the item, as determined by the weight scale, is multiplied by a cost code (typically expressed as a price per unit of weight) associated with the PLU code. Such cost codes are stored in or transmitted to the processing unit associated with the checkout station during the checkout process.
One problem with known self-checkout and assisted checkout solutions is that the customer or checkout clerk is not prompted as to what keystroke operation(s) must be performed in order to properly checkout the un-scannable item. One solution, as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/602,483, filed Feb., 20, 1996 and assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, has been to provide a visual indicator which prompts a user to verbally announce the name of the un-scannable item so that voice recognition software associated with a checkout station may then identify the price of the un-scannable item and enter the price into a checkout transaction. It should be appreciated that with a voice recognition module, voice synthesis module, and voice recording module associated therewith, the known checkout station solution may be cost prohibitive in some applications.
Thus, what is needed therefore is a cost effective solution which prompts a user to initiate a specific procedure (e.g. keystroke operation) for checking out an un-scannable item. Such a prompt would increase the productivity of the user and/or the checkout station. In the case of a checkout clerk or customer which is familiar with the specific procedure for checking out an un-scannable item. productivity is increased because of the reduced amount of time that it takes for the checkout clerk or customer to initiate the procedure. For instance, the thought process required to initiate a proper keystroke operation is reduced by prompting the checkout clerk or customer as to the proper keystroke operation that should be performed. It should be appreciated that the increased productivity benefits which are realized by prompting a user familiar with a specific checkout procedure for an un-scannable item, are even greater when prompting a user which is not familiar with the checkout procedure for un-scannable items.